


In A World of Broken Dreams (You Give Me Something to Believe)

by lj_todd



Category: Dominion (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 17:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4488198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lj_todd/pseuds/lj_todd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael would never let it show, would never admit it, but he hated living in Vega.</p>
<p>The only reason he suffered it, the only reason he hadn't chosen some high place outside of the city, was Alex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In A World of Broken Dreams (You Give Me Something to Believe)

Michael would never let it show, would never admit it, but he hated living in Vega.

The stifling walls. The restrictive ceilings. The constant press of people that were not his own kind.

All it of it made his skin itch.

It was why, as Jeep had so eloquently put it, he always chose the highest perch.

The only reason he suffered it, the only reason he hadn't chosen some high place outside of the city, was Alex.

The boy needed the safety the city offered, needed the companionship of other humans, needed to be able to see and feel and remember what, and whom, exactly he would one day be fighting for.

So Michael stayed.

He watched and waited.

Watching over Alex and, as the boy grew to manhood, he felt his hope, his faith, continue to burn.

There were days, hard days, when that hope and faith dwindled, slowly began fading, but the moment he saw Alex it was like an ember was banked.

After Jeep's death, when he began truly trying to teach Alex, he saw, beneath the hot headed bravado and crassness, was a frightened boy. Terrified of being abandoned again. Of finally opening up to someone, of letting them in, and having them just walk away from him.

Alex feared he wasn't good enough. That he was broken.

Michael could understand that.

One night, after yet another bickering match with his charge, he was surprised when Alex suddenly asked why he even bothered. Why he'd fought for humanity in the first place.

It reminded him of Jeep. Of the night he'd first arrived to protect a child that, one day, would be humanity's last hope.

He drew a deep breath and gave the faintest of smiles before he gave to Alex the same words he had given Jeep twenty-five years ago.

"When God chose your kind as the object of His love I was the first in all Heaven to bow down before you. My love, my hope, for mankind was no less than His." He stepped closer to where Alex sat, kneeling down before him just as he had that night in the bunker. "But I have watched you trample that gift. I've watched your kind kill each other over race and greed. Wage war over dust and rubble and the words in old books. And yet in the midst of all that darkness I see some people who will not be bowed."

Michael smiled slightly even as Alex stared at him with surprise. Just as his father had all those years ago.

"I see some people who will not give up. Even when they know all hope is lost. Some people who realize that being lost is so close to being found."

He reached up, cupping Alex's cheek, thumb rubbing gently over the soft skin.

"I see you, Alex, abandoned, forced into the lowest caste, fighting with everything you have and yet still capable of great love and compassion. You love a woman and you love her with no thought of yourself. Even though you know she will never truly be yours."

He leaned up, pressing his forehead to Alex's, still smiling.

"You, Alex, you are why I fought for humanity. _You_ are why I still fight."

Slowly rising to his feet Michael ran his hand over Alex's hair, leaning down to kiss the top of the young man's head before turning away.

"Lessons are finished for today, I think," he said as he stepped towards the balcony, needing to stretch his wings.

As he leapt from the tower, soaring through the air, he breathed deeply.

He would never admit it, never even allow himself say it aloud even to himself, but in this stifling city full of walls and ceilings and pressing souls, when he looked at Alex, when he was with the young man, it was the closest he felt to Heaven since he had left it.


End file.
